Dame Lisa Carrington of New Zealand wins gold in the women’s Kayak Single 500m at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Photo: Iain McGregor / www.photosport.nz
A year on from their most successful Olympics, Canoe Sprint New Zealand is using this week's world champs as a chance to build and evolve.
A team of 13 paddlers will line-up at the World Championships in Milan, Italy, including Dame Lisa Carrington, who makes her highly anticipated return to racing.
New Zealand finished top of the canoe sprint medal table at the 2024 Paris Olympics with three gold medals - led by Dame Lisa with victories in the K1, K2 and K5 500 events.
But Canoe Racing New Zealand's GM of Performance told RNZ that won't mean much in Milan this week.
"New Zealanders are quite humble, there is no swagger," said Canadian-born Nathan Luce.
"They're [women's canoe team] confident, they know what they can do, but they don't have that bravado that some other countries display."
With three years to go to the Los Angeles Olympics, the World Championships are a chance to build.
"Expectations are a bit limited the first year after the Olympics ...You don't take your foot off the gas pedal but you try a few different methods and strategies.
"You want to time your run perfectly to LA (Olympics) and sometimes there are bumps along the road and lessons learnt. It's hard when you've had such a great year of success to maintain that standard, but we do our best to evolve and think beyond just the results and the medals."
New Zealand women's K4 of (L TO R) Lisa Carrington, Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan competing at the Paris Olympics. Photo: Photosport
Dame Lisa had decided to take 2025 off from international competition, but answered the SOS call to join the squad a month ago as an injury replacement for Olivia Brett.
She will race in the K4 with Alicia Hoskin, Tara Vaughan and Lucy Matahaere and the K2 with Vaughan.
While she didn't compete at the two World Cup regattas this year, Carrington continued to train this year as a part of the elite squad.
Despite her low key approach to 2025, there is still a lot of anticipation around seeing her in action again, especially after her three gold medals in Paris last year.
Aimee Fisher heads the individual competition in Italy competing in the K1 500 and K1 1000, the events she had success in at this year's World Cup regattas.
However, the national body is focussing on the K4 boats this year to get as many athletes as possible involved.
The women's K4 has three members from their Olympic gold medal line-up, while Grant Clancy is the only member left from the men's K4 boat, which finished eighth in Paris.
"We've been blessed with some good talent coming through the last few years and we've been able to maintain a good standard in that event, which is highly competitive around the world.
"A K4 campaign provides a bigger base of athletes to work with and more opportunity for athletes to succeed. So to start with the four and then trickle down to the slower boats in the future has been a strategy of ours for some time now."
(L to R) Lisa Carrington, Tara Vaughan, Olivia Brett and Alicia Hoskin from New Zealand win gold in the women’s four final. Paris 2024. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The New Zealand Team at the World Championships in Italy 20-24 August 2025:
- Men's KL3 200m - Finn Murphy
- Men's KL2 200m - Scott Martlew
- Men's VL3 200m - Peter Cowan
- Women's K1 500m - Aimee Fisher
- Women's K1 1000m - Aimee Fisher
- Men's K1 1000m - Quaid Thompson
- Women's K1 5000m - Emma Kemp
- Men's K1 5000m - Quaid Thompson
- Women's K2 500m - Lisa Carrington, Tara Vaughan
- Women's K4 500m - Lisa Carrington, Alicia Hoskin, Tara Vaughan, Lucy Matehaere
- Men's K4 500m - Grant Clancy, James Munro , Kacey Ngataki, Kalani Gilbertson
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
